Spotfire® Web Client User Guide

Adding a property control to a text area

By adding a property control to a text area (using the installed client), and populating it with values from a column, you can let other people control what to show in a visualization, even if they do not have authoring rights.

About this task

See Configuring an on-demand data table for an example where the property control can be used to update an on-demand data table. The steps below uses this example as the basis for what to select.

Before you begin

Text areas must be authored in the installed client.

Procedure

  1. Create or click to activate a text area.
  2. On the title bar of the text area (or in the right-click menu) click Edit Text Area .
  3. In the Edit Text Area dialog, type some descriptive text to help others understand what the control will do.
  4. Click the Insert Property Control button , and select which type of control to add. In this example we will add a Drop-down list. See below for other options.
    OptionDescription
    Label Shows the current value of the selected property in the text area:

    The label can also be used with binary properties. This means that you can use it to display images as well as text.

    Input field Adds a text box where you can type a new value for the property:

    Input field (multiple lines) Adds a text box where you can type new values for a string property with multiple lines:

    The Input field (multiple lines) control can only be used with string properties.

    Drop-down list Adds a drop-down list, where the property value can be changed by selecting among predefined options:

    List box Adds a list box, where the property value can be changed by selecting among predefined options:

    List box (multiple lines) Adds a list box, where the property value can be changed by selecting several predefined options:

    The List box (multiple select) control can only be used with multiple line string properties.

    SliderAdds a slider where the property values can be changed by moving the slider:

    The current property value is displayed in a label above the slider.

  5. In the Property Control dialog, select a document property. In this example we use a string property called "Type", with the value "Apples".
    Tip: You can also create a new property by clicking New and defining a name, type and a value.
  6. Select Set property value through and choose an option. In this example we use Unique values in column.
    This option will show all unique values in the column as possible choices to select in the drop-down list. See below for other options.
    OptionDescription
    Column selection Shows a list of columns to select from.

    If you not all columns should be available, you can type an expression to only show columns of interest. For example, use datatype:integer or datatype:real to only show columns of a certain data type.

    You can also search for columns matching a specific column property value. For example, if you have added a column property called included.column, with the default value false, and you update the value for the columns that you want to include to true, you can use included.column:true in your search expression.

    Unique values in column Shows a list of unique values picked from a column.
    Expressions Shows a list of values obtained via more or less complex calculations.
    Fixed values Shows a list of values that you define yourself.
    Numerical range Shows a range of values from min to max, increased using a specified value interval.
  7. Depending on what you chose in step 6, you see different things here, but this example assumes that you chose Unique values in column. If more than one data table is available in the analysis, select the Data table to work on.
    If you want to use the control to define an on-demand data table, then this should be the main data table and not the on-demand data table.
  8. Select Column to use. In this example, we use the "Type" column.
  9. If desired, you can limit the values to show in the drop-down list using a search expression.
    Only those values matching the search expression will be shown in the control. See Searching in Spotfire for more information about valid search expressions.
  10. Click OK and, in the Edit Text Area dialog, click Save before closing edit mode.

Results

The property control is added to the text area. You can now use the property control to change the value of the property, and if the property is used on an axis, this can let you choose which product type to look at in a visualization.